This is set three years after the events of the Movie but incorporates aspects of the Tv Show. A couple of big differences are that John is the oldest, not Scott and there is an older Tracy, their sister Chloe. She is older than John by two years. Also, Gordon has brown hair :L I had to do this so that it was the same colour as Scott's and to get it to fit in with a major part of the story which you will find out if you read on. There are also some unrealistic elements in the story but there are in both the movie and the series so I don't feel too guilty.

I used some creative freedom but I DO NOT OWN THE THUNDERBIRDS

It's the height of summer and the world had been silent for weeks. John was bored as a plank sat on his own up in Thunderbird 5. He loved the independence of being on his own, and he liked being alone to think and look at the stars, but he sometimes wished he could get a bit more of the action from his family. He felt he missed out on a lot of things that happened when he was in space. John spun his chair round in circles and stopped to look at the family photo he had on his control unit. It was about two years old and had been taken on a trip to London. Their sister, who had lived in foster Care in England throughout the entire of their childhood, had taken them there for a sightseeing trip. They were all really happy, standing on Jubilee Gardens in front of the Millennium eye. The last time they had been there was one year prior to the photo when they had witnessed their youngest brother rescue a carriage full of people from the bottom of the Thames. John looked at the photo and smiled. That was one of the first times they had all been together properly as a family. Chloe had been securely given back her American citizenship after finding them again and had been allowed to live with them permanently. John laughed as he remembered how aggravated she had been initially. Chloe was two years older than him, so technically, she could have lived wherever she wanted, but there had been issues with her wanting to live with her old family again. Chloe had been so cross because she had thought once she turned 18 there wouldn't be a problem. She was wrong. It took six years for them to agree t her living with them again, after which time International rescue had been operating for some time and she had started a career in the RAF as a designer and engineer. She was always going to start International Rescue with their Dad once she turned 18 but with things so complicated, she had to hand over to John to help start up the organisation.

John looked up from the photo just as he received a report from the weather data. He opened the full screen satellite image and located the earth tremors he had been warned about. He set a tracking locator onto the tremors and sat back down in his chair. He looked at the next photo on the unit. This one was considerably older. It was taken on one of the rare School Breaks they had when Chloe was allowed home to visit. They were clad in colour responding swimsuits and were standing proudly in age order. Chloe had refused to wear her purple swimsuit on its own so she was in a matching, purple set of swimming shorts, the same make and pattern as the boys, ones. Ever since they were little, they had had their own colours. Many people had asked John why he owned so much brown and bronze coloured stuff when he unpacked at boarding school. No-one could understand why it was his colour. He had picked that colour because it was the colour of his Dad's telescope. John fingered the bronze coloured badge on his uniform, and then looked back towards the outlook behind him. He looked again at the old photo then stood up and walked towards the outlook. This was his space.

John walked into a big open area which was made entirely if glass. On the stand in the middle of the area stood a big bronze telescope. John had built the outlook so that he could have a better view of the stars around him. This was one of the reasons he liked being out in Space. John had inherited his Father's passion for astronomy. It was a favourite past-time of his, one that can only be fully appreciated living on a remote island like Tracy Island and living on your own in space. John put his eye to the cool metal and twisted the telescope round to spot his constellations. He knew off by heart where each of his favourite constellations were, and where his family constellations were as well. John was just turning the telescope to get a look at the moon when he spotted something moving. He thought it was a shooting star to begin with but it was moving too slowly. He looked closely and could just make out the shape of a satellite. He looked again and tried to adjust the focus on the telescope but the object was gone. He shifted the telescope back to the constellations when he heard the ringer on his control unit start up. He put the protective cap back on the telescope and rearranged it back in place then set off back towards his main desk. When he got there he turned on the video conference screen and saw his Dad's face fill the entire screen.

"John! I was beginning to think you weren't there." Jeff Tracy grinned at his eldest son.

"No Dad, just using the old telescope." John pointed over his shoulder to the observatory

"Everything quiet up there?" asked Jeff.

"Yeah pretty much. You know, I never thought I'd say this but I'm beginning to feel lonely up here."

Jeff started to laugh.

"It's only because your sister's down here and you have nothing to do up there."

"At least she's down there with you and not in England again."

"Well I can't say I'm not glad to have her back here with us."

"She's not going anywhere you know Dad." John was reassuring.

"I know. I just; It still feels like she's twelve sometimes. That she has to go back because I can't look after her."

"Well she's not Dad, and you did a great job with the rest of us when Mom died."

"Thanks John." Jeff smiled sadly.

"She's not going anywhere, and she's not twelve anymore, although she does act like it sometimes."

Jeff chuckled.

John smoothed his blonde hair back behind his ear and smiled at his Dad.

"So John, is anything at all going on in the world other than my kids?"

"Well, I'm picking up readings of Earth tremors in the Pacific Ocean."

"Any populations?"

"None necessarily in the impact zone, but I can't be sure on the strengths. The readings are all jumpy and inconclusive. I'm patched into the Pacific Met Office radio frequency to pick up on any information they might have but it looks like it could be a Tsunami."

"Are you sure?"

"The vibrations of the Tectonic plates are pretty set towards that type of outcome but hopefully it will shake itself out."

"Keep me posted, and call if there are any updates from the Met."

"F.A.B Dad."

"Anything else?"

"Just one thing. I was looking out with the telescope and I saw some sort of satellite orbiting. At least I think it was. I couldn't see clearly because it was too far away and then you called."

"Okay. You could send out a signal jammer and try and trace the frequencies back to Tracy Island."

"What happens if it is military?"

"All military operations have the same code at the beginning of them so that if this happens, they can be told apart."

"Okay, I'll send a signal out and relay the frequencies back to you."

"Thanks John. I'll have a look now and get back to you in the morning."

"Okay."

"Keep an eye on that tsunami warning as well."

"F.A.B Dad. See you in the morning."

"Night John."

The screen went blank and John was left to himself again.

He set up a signal range and sent out a pulse to detect a frequency signal for his alien satellite.

After about ten minutes he still had no returning signal.

"You were asleep John Tracy, imagining things, hallucinating." He sighed and went back over to the telescope; he still had another hour to kill before he could get some sleep. Again John removed the protective cap from the lens of the telescope and began to peer through it to the surrounding stars. He found some of the well known constellations and began to feel happier.

He gave up trying to find particular stars and after replacing the protective cap, he went back to his control room and sat back in his chair. He reached up to the book shelf and grabbed a battered and torn book that had been thumbed through far too many times. The book was a fiction novel called "Swallows and Amazons" the story was ancient although the book itself was relatively new when he had been given it. He opened the first page and read the message on the front page.

6th October 2009

Hey John,

Happy 12th Birthday!

I'm really sorry I missed you when I came to visit over summer. I know we haven't always seen eye to eye but it was strange you not being there. I missed having someone to argue with.

I hope year seven is going well, if not, Box their ears in!

I'll see you sometime soon yeah?

Love you

Chloe x

He ran his fingers over the fading message and started to laugh. He could remember receiving the book in the post at his old boarding school Wharton Academy. When he had read the note from his sister, he had laughed and cried at the same time. It was entirely true that John and Chloe had never seen eye to eye. In fact, some people would have gone far enough to say that the pair of them hated each other. They were forever throwing dirty glances and evil looks at one another. John had never trusted her because he thought that she had left them and was trying to worm her way back into the family. It didn't ring true with John that she was desperate to feel part of her old family again. He always saw her as the interloper and always felt upset because she became the eldest again and won the affections of their younger siblings.

That September, John had started 7th grade in a boarding school; Wharton Academy. When he was younger, he and his brothers and been home schooled by their father and towards a later date, he had employed the help of a tutor for some of the time when he was working on the rockets that were to become thunderbirds. When he started at the boarding school, he was terrified, he had never been away from home for very long and here he was in boarding school. He had received Chloe's book a bit later than his actual birthday because of the time it took to send. It was nice to hear from her when he was away from home and he finally understood what it was like to be living away from home. He had cried himself to sleep that night because he was so lonely, but he had also laughed because she had sent him the encouraging message even when he could be so mean to her. Their Dad had often said to John after Chloe had returned to England that he would be lost without her one day, and when he had received that book, he had finally realised what his Dad had meant.

After that day he had begun to rebuild a friendship with her although it took a very long time. They realised how alike the two of them were. He could never have the same sort of relationship as his younger brother had with her but they were on the same page. He had even raced down a crowded street in Birmingham to hug her when he was fifteen because he had spotted her when he was on a school trip to the city in which she was staying. They had inevitably had a major argument that time as well but that always happened and it had become a sort of ritual when they were younger. Nowadays Chloe and he respected each other a lot more. Chloe let him take some of the responsibility and John stopped purposefully trying to annoy her although they did lark around like all siblings do.

John opened the book and started to read about the children going to live on their island on their own. He had done the same thing with his brothers when they were younger. He had taken them to a very remote part of the island and they had proceeded to make a den with shelters and a camp fire so that they could live there. The problem was they had misjudged the time and ended up sleeping the night under the stars. They had all had a brilliant time telling stories and jokes with each other but when they had eventually trekked back to the main living quarters in the morning, they found their Dad going absolutely crazy because he couldn't find them. John couldn't remember him looking so angry since their Mom had died. He had bundled the younger three towards the bathroom to remove the dirt, sweat and blood from themselves, then he had shouted at John and Scott until he was blue in the face then sent them to their room. It was only when John crept outside half an hour later to ask for some food did he realise his Dad was crying.

John looked at his watch, he had fifteen minutes left. He was considering turning in early when he got a signal back from his satellite; or so he thought. He looked at the monitor and found he had received exactly the same signal back. He looked puzzled; he couldn't work out whether he had seen anything or not. He decided that he had just got back his own signal from a reflective surface somewhere. He adjusted the tracking on the tsunami warning and set off towards his room where he could finally crash into his bed.

So that's chapter one. I know it's a lot about John but I thought it would help wet up some background because he is so thoughtful and contemplative. Let me know what you think and I will post the next chapter if you think it's okay! Mx